Another piece of the south of Iowa gone ...

The 1927 P.E.O. Memorial Library building on the Iowa Wesleyan campus houses today administrative offices and an art gallery. A newer and larger library is located elsewhere on campus.

The announcement Tuesday that Iowa's oldest co-educational institution of higher learning, Iowa Wesleyan University of Mount Pleasant, will close on May 31 has caused a good deal of sorrow as well as the usual bickering.

The decision by the university's board of trustees was unanimous; the immediate cause, rejection of a request for $12 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding via the Reynolds administration's Empower Rural Iowa Initiative program.

Iowa Wesleyan was one of four smaller private Iowa universities that applied for $12 million in aid each through these programs --- all rejected. The others were Graceland, William Penn and Upper Iowa.

The closure impacts about 850 students and 110 faculty and staff and, of course, leaves a giant hole in the economy and culture of Mount Pleasant and southeast Iowa in general.

Iowa Wesleyan had struggled financially for years for a range of reasons and was hit hard by the COVID-19 situation. Everyone agreed recent signs --- including record enrollment --- were promising. But the university failed to make the case that additional spending would change the long-term outlook for a small, rural university with limited endowment in what now is a rather remote place.

So it was a sad day.

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Iowa Wesleyan began life as the Mount Pleasant Literary Institute in 1842, and was known as Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institute from 1843 to 1855, Iowa Wesleyan University from 1855 to 1912, and Iowa Wesleyan College from 1912 to 2015. The name reverted to Iowa Wesleyan University in 2015.

It was the state's first co-educational institution of higher learning. Dubuque's St. Raphael Seminary, predecessor of today's Loras College, actually was founded three years earlier by Mathias Loras, first bishop of Dubuque, but it was an all male institution. 

Iowa Wesleyan also has the distinction of being the founding site of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, organized on Jan. 21, 1869, in Old Main on the university campus.

Many Lucas Countyans have attended Iowa Wesleyan over the years, although we've tended to favor Simpson at Indianola, primarily because of its proximity. The small advertisement here is taken from The Chariton Herald of July 30, 1891.

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When the university closes on May 31, campus ownership will transfer to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The campus was used in 2016 as collateral for a $26.1 million loan and mortgage guarantees from the federal agency, according to state officials.

If you'd like to read more, Clark Kauffman has the best and most detailed (and free) account I've found under the headline, "Owing $26 million to the USDA, Iowa Wesleyan University announces closure," at Iowa Capital Dispatch.